Russian Civic Education and Social Studies Education at Purdue University

Nelson, Lynn R.; Rapoport, Anatoli

International Journal of Social Education, v20 n2 p99-114 Fall-Win 2005-2006

There are three distinct Russian civic education programs at Purdue University (the Civics Mosaic program, the Training of Professors for Civic Education program, and the Russian Maymester program). The programs are loosely joined together by a civic education purpose, but remain distinct in the nature of their participants--Russian and American undergraduate students, teachers, and professors. These programs are also differentiated by their programmatic outcomes: teacher education, development of curriculum materials, and exchange of ideas between Russian and American teacher educators. This article offers a brief description of all three of these programs, but focuses primarily on the Russian Maymester program located in St. Petersburg, Russia. Russian Maymester was originally planned as an "island model" study-abroad program. The "island model"--sometimes called "exported campus" or "campus outside campus"--assumes that a group of students arrives in the foreign country and creates a miniature campus of their own college. In this model, students are taught by instructors from their college according to the approved curricula. This model has several advantages: there is no problem with the qualification of instructors, or credit and assessment requirements; there is no need to reevaluate syllabi or materials; and students do not experience cultural shock in classroom, and it also helps them adjust to the new environment outside the classroom. The most obvious drawbacks of the "island model" are limited contacts with the local students, and lack of first-hand experience in the local system of higher education. Appendix A contains: A Civics Mosaic: The Study of Political Systems in Comparative Perspective. (Contains 5 endnotes.)